Sunday, June 17, 2007

Because of the first five words in the first chapter of Revelation people have concluded that the book was given to us to reveal who Jesus is. Those words are, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ.” This thought process is then built upon to the point where most Christians believe that the book of Revelation cannot be understood, and that we are not supposed to get caught up in the details anyway because, "It’s not a road map,” they say, “It’s about Jesus.”

But somewhere down the road, one step at a time, things have evolved so that many Christians view the book as an alien form of literature that’s not even worth attempting to unlock. My wife’s NIV Study Bible actually says in its introduction to Revelation that we should “resist the temptation to become overly enamored with the details.” Bull.

I don’t believe that the words “The Revelation of Jesus Christ” are referring to the revealing of Jesus. Certainly Revelation displays His qualities, wrath, mercy, justice, grace, forgiveness, sovereignty and more, but these things and His perfect character have already been “revealed” to us in great detail throughout the rest of Scripture, and there is little within the pages of Revelation concerning Jesus and His character that has not been revealed previously.

If we read beyond the first five words the verse actually tells us what the book is about and why it was given to us. And it doesn’t tell us that it’s about Jesus being revealed.

Revelation 1:1 NASBThe Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place…

Revelation was given to us to show us what must soon take place! The Amplified Bible really brings out the true meaning.

Revelation 1:1 Amplified[This is] the revelation of Jesus Christ [His unveiling of the divine mysteries]. God gave it to Him to disclose and make known to His bond servants certain things which must shortly and speedily come to pass in their entirety.

I think that a similar correlation to the meaning of, "The Revelation of Jesus Christ," would be Joe Diddly writing a book called "The Teaching of Joe Diddly." The title wouldn’t be implying that the teaching is ABOUT Joe Diddly, it would be conveying that the teaching IS Joe Diddly’s, just as The Revelation is Jesus’. And if this is the true meaning of "The Revelation," and if it's true that the book was given to us so that we will know what will soon take place, the box that we keep our end times thoughts in should be broken wide open because there are great implications involved.

Jesus gave us this information so that we will know what must soon take place (but I’m not limiting it to this reason). We, no matter what anyone tells us, should definitely become “enamored” with the details of this awesome book. Even if it’s against the advice from someone so important that their opinions are within the pages of the NIV Study Bible.

Synonyms for the word “enamored” are “infatuated,” “captivated” and “smitten.” These words perfectly describe what we should be when it comes to the details within Revelation, and within the Bible as a whole. I find it very ironic that we have been told by many that we should not be captivated by prophetic details. They are there for a reason.